The Darkening

The Darkening Episode 1: The Nameless Project is a Doom II megawad containing twenty-two maps, split equally between single player/coop and deathmatch. Initially released on January 19, 1998, a v1.1 bug fix followed on January 21 to add a missing flat and texture animation. The ZIP file uploaded to the idgames archive is dated January 7, 1999 however it contains the v1.1 files from January 21, 1998. It was named as one of the Top 100 WADs of All Time under the year 1999.

The project was conceived by Jan Van der Veken and Travers Dunne as a 32-level megawad with team contributions similar to Memento Mori and Requiem, but with more consistent theming. To make new levels publicly available more quickly, the plan was to iteratively release the megawad as three episodes containing 10 or 11 maps each.

Its sequel The Darkening Episode 2 was released in March 2000 to a positive reception. A third episode was never worked on as team members moved onto other projects.

People
Levels for the WAD were made by:


 * Nick Baker
 * John Bye
 * Travers Dunne
 * Jan Van der Veken
 * Adam Windsor

Textures for the WAD were created by:


 * Nick Baker
 * Ola Björling

Single player levels ()

 * by Jan Van der Veken
 * by Jan Van der Veken
 * by John Bye
 * by Travers Dunne
 * by Jan Van der Veken
 * by Nick Baker
 * by Nick Baker
 * by John Bye
 * by Jan Van der Veken
 * by Travers Dunne
 * by Adam Windsor

Deathmatch levels ()

 * MAP01: The Spine of Evil by Jan Van der Veken
 * MAP02: Devil's Dungeon by Jan Van der Veken
 * MAP03: Quake DM (a.k.a. Fragmentation) by Travers Dunne
 * MAP04: Relentless Until Death by Travers Dunne
 * MAP05: Sulphur by Jan Van der Veken
 * MAP06: Return to the Realms by Nick Baker
 * MAP07: Valley of the Lost by Travers Dunne and Nick Baker
 * MAP08: Vertigo by Jan Van der Veken
 * MAP09: Interrogation Central by Jan Van der Veken
 * MAP10: Death Awaits 6ft. Under Earth by Travers Dunne
 * MAP11: Stone Tyrant by Adam Windsor

Soundtrack

 * MAP01: "Inner Turmoil" by David Shaw
 * MAP02: "Mizshunn Impassable" by David Shaw
 * MAP03: "The Imp's Song" by Robert Prince
 * MAP04: "Anger's Reprise" by David Shaw
 * MAP05: "GloomKeep" by David Shaw
 * MAP06: Untitled by David Shaw
 * MAP07: "Into The Fray" by David Shaw
 * MAP08: "Lamneth's Ground" by David Shaw
 * MAP09: "Hiding the Secrets" by Robert Prince
 * MAP10: "Breath of Sin" by David Shaw
 * MAP11: "Sign of Evil" by Robert Prince


 * Intermission screen: "Icarus Theme" by David Shaw
 * Title screen: Untitled by David Shaw

Originally appeared in STRAIN.

Originally appeared in Memento Mori II.

Originally appeared in Doom.

Originally appeared in The Talosian Incident.

Originally appeared in Requiem.

Arrangement of Icarus: Alien Vanguard theme; originally appeared on the official Icarus website.

Current records
The DSDA episode records for The Darkening are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on March 17, 2023.